As the sliding member, a sliding material in which Cu—Sn alloy has been bonded to a steel plate has been often used. The previously used Cu—Sn alloy has been Cu—Sn—Pb alloy in which an addition of Pb has allowed an excellent sliding to be maintained.
However, the use of Pb has been limited in various kinds of fields in recent years because Pb has any quality of being noxious to human body and Pb-free material has been proposed in the sliding member. As such Pb-free sliding material, a sliding member in which a resin material has been used has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
The previous sliding member using the resin material has had a configuration such that a porous Cu—Sn alloy layer has formed on the steel plate and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as the resin material has been impregnated into this porous layer and coated thereon. The porous layer has been so that powders of Cu—Sn alloy have been dispersed on the steel plate and the steel plate on which the powders of Cu—Sn alloy have dispersed has been sintered in a sintering furnace, thereby enabling a porous Cu—Sn alloy layer to be formed on the steel plate.